Automated Residential Energy Monitoring: An Approach to Performance Comparisons

Techniques for residential energy usage monitoring is an emerging field that is currently drawing significant attention. This paper is a description of the current efforts to monitor and compare the performance of three solar-powered homes built at Missouri University of Science and Technology. The homes are outfitted with an array of sensors and a data logger system to measure and record electricity production, system energy use, internal home temperature and humidity, hot water production, and exterior ambient conditions the houses are experiencing. Data will be collected to measure the performance of the houses, compare to energy modeling programs, design and develop cost effective sensor systems for energy monitoring, and produce a cost effective home control system.